Reform

With the Conservatives on watch for further defectors, academic Richard Johnson and Conservative peer Danny Finkelstein join James Heale to discuss whether British politics rewards traitors or faithfuls. Richard points out that often personal success is dependent on whether the party goes on to be a major or minor player in British politics; Winston Churchill and Shaun Woodward fared better, while Shirley Williams and Mark Reckless had less success. Danny – whose political career began with the SDP in the 1980s – also takes us through his personal experience and the challenges of defecting, from ideology and demography to the perception of betrayal. How fundamental is the shift taking place in British politics? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

Robert Jenrick has sensationally defected to Reform. After a day that started with his sacking from the Conservatives – over plotting to reject – continued with the will-he-won’t-he drama of whether Farage would accept him as a new Reform member this afternoon; it ends with a press conference welcoming him to Farage’s gang. So what happens now? Kemi Badenoch was praised for her show of strength in swiftly expelling Jenrick, but she is undoubtedly weakened after this news and her frontbencher looks considerably lighter. Is this an inflection point for the Conservative party? And what role will Bobby J play in Reform – could he be their new shadow chancellor? Oscar Edmondson, Tim Shipman and James Heale discuss a hectic day on the British right. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

The leader of the Scottish Conservatives, Russell Findlay MSP, sits down with James Heale to look ahead to May's pivotal Holyrood elections. He pushes back against the threat from Reform, arguing that Nigel Farage is trying to be 'all things to all people', and he is scathing about the lack of loyalty shown by those who have defected from the party – not just to Reform, but to the Liberal Democrats too. But with the collapse of the support Labour received in the 2024 general election – which Findlay calls their 'loveless landslide' – why aren't the Tories benefitting more? Plus, how did being the victim of a vicious acid attack in 2015 shape his politics? Produced by Patrick Gibbons.

How many Tories is too many? That’s the question Westminster is asking after the unveiling of Reform’s latest defector. Nadhim Zahawi, Boris Johnson’s brief-lived Chancellor of the Exchequer, is Nigel Farage’s latest recruit. He told journalists that the UK had reached a ‘dark and dangerous’ moment, and that the country needed ‘a glorious revolution’. But are Reform just turning into the Tories 2.0? And what will Zahawi’s role be – is he the elusive shadow chancellor Farage has been searching for? Oscar Edmondson speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale. Produced by Oscar Edmondson.

Britain’s mums are backing Nigel Farage. One in five Mumsnet users intend to vote for Reform at the next general election, the first time a party other than Labour has topped its poll. Having been more negative towards Farage and the right in the past, why are its politically engaged users changing their minds? Are they swayed by issues like single-sex spaces, or does it reflect a wider collapse of confidence in the establishment? James Heale speaks to Tim Shipman and Sonia Sodha. Produced by Megan McElroy.

2025 was the easy part for Reform. If they win the election, however, how do they actually govern? In The Spectator this week, Tim Shipman writes about the party’s plans to tackle Whitehall bloat, bypass the Lords and restore the authority of the Prime Minister over the various institutions of state. The man tasked with working this out is Danny Kruger, who is working up plans to push change through using Orders in Council – a device in the Privy Council – as well as statutory instruments and ministerial guidance to avoid the need for primary legislation. But the party is only in the foothills, and one source warns that ‘Nigel doesn’t trust other politicians’: can he build a winning team? Who has his ear? And does he actually want to be Prime Minister?

After a summer in which Nigel Farage seemed to bend the news cycle to his will, Michael and Maddie ask whether the party’s momentum is slipping. Do the allegations dredged up from Farage’s schooldays mark a decisive turning point – or, perversely, strengthen his outsider appeal? And with questions over Reform’s election spending, defections from the Conservatives, and the small matter of finding 500 people to staff a government, is the insurgent right entering its moment of vulnerability? Then: two stories that lay bare a crisis in women’s healthcare. Baroness Amos’s damning interim review of maternity services and the astonishing employment tribunal ruling in the Sandy Peggie case raise the same question – why does the system still fail women at their most vulnerable?

On the face of it, the Caerphilly by-election result is a disaster, a drubbing and a humiliation for Keir Starmer’s Labour party. A once secure bastion of the Welsh Labour heartlands fell without a squeak from the governing party. Their vote collapsed to a miserable 11 per cent, while Plaid Cymru won with 47 per cent and Reform surged to second place with 36 per cent. The result suggests Labour is on course to surrender a boatload of seats at the 2029 general election, both to Reform and to whatever protest party is best suited to beat the government around the head – be it Plaid, the Greens, the Corbynites, the Islamist independents or the SNP. But is there good news for the PM beyond the headlines?  Lucy Dunn speaks to Tim Shipman and James Heale.